The Real World

Healing hands

Ursula Bruce grew up on a small sheep and beef farm in the Manawatu where she, her brothers and sister helped out a lot with the daily farm activities. Today Ursula spends most of her day on dairy farms, as a large animal vet in Tirau.

“Being a vet is a really satisfying job. You get to see animals recover from disease and injury and also help farmers improve their production through whole herd animal health programmes.”

Growing up, Ursula wasn’t sure she wanted to be a vet, but now she is stoked to have invested five years studying veterinary science at Massey University and chosen this careerpath.

"To get into the course you need to study like crazy for the first semester. It’s no big deal missing out on lots of parties - you'll have plenty of time to make up for it afterwards.”

There are no typical days as a vet. Ursula can attend callouts dealing with anything from pregnancy testing herds and vaccinations to calf dehorning.

The hours are similar to other jobs in the dairy industry. Calving is the busiest time of the year, but is part of the job and is also the most exciting time of year.

“Every callout is different, you never know what your day is going to entail. Days are never dull as a large animal vet, it keeps you thinking,” she says.

Ursula says one of the best parts of the job is the clients.

"Farmers are fantastic people with a great sense of humour and reasonability. Also I have an awesome group of people to work with at the clinic. I get to be outside most of the day, meet lots of people and keep active."

“The most important qualities you need to be a vet are personality, commonsense and problem-solving ability.”

“The best thing about working in the dairy industry is dealing with the clients and getting to be outside in the sunshine most of the day!”